Decades before YouTube, Karaoke or Howard

Stern became part of the public's vernacular, a

young Mill Valley man and self-proclaimed

"Spazz" was entertaining thousands of Marin

young people with little more than a few phone

lines and some modified home answering

machine equipment.   (Click HERE to see an

early 1980's VIDEO of Mark Spazz discussing

his creation on Marin Viacom 31.)

Starting in 1978, callers dialing into Mark

Power's free "Dial-A-Spazz" line could listen to

uncensored raunchy messages, jokes, and

songs left anonymously by Marin pre-teens and

teenagers.  At certain times of the day the lines

became a "conference" where callers could

anonymously "meet" each other in a virtual chat

room much like the old telephone "party lines" of

the 1940s and ‘50s.

Power built, operated and maintained the entire system on his own and

served as its producer and host, splicing all the incoming messages into a

combined show reel that he played on a revolving outgoing message 24

hours a day.

"It was like having my own radio show," says Power, who was born in San

Francisco and has lived in Marin all of his life.  “I did (Dial-A-Spazz) ‘cause it

was fun,” he says.  “I got a thrill out of it.  It was like my own little radio

show.  I’d always wanted to be a radio DJ, and so it was like I had my own

pulpit, to say whatever I thought, whatever was on my mind, to share it with

the world.  I felt like I was having an impact and reaching people, and

creating something that gave to people 24 hours a day, and it wasn’t that

expensive to do.  So it was gratifying...”

If all this talk of user-created programming and anonymous chat rooms

sound a bit like today's Internet, it was.  Says Power, "When I look at

YouTube and things like that, I go 'That’s just video Dial-A-Spazz!' And had

I’d been on it, I could be a multimillionaire right now."

Power graduated from Tam High in 1975 and has been self-employed since

he was 21.  Today he is the longtime owner of a Disc Jockey and Karaoke

company called Goodtime Disk Jockeys (www.goodtimedj.com).  His

career as a professional entertainer is colorful -- lead singer of a rock band,

Karaoke MC at Ted’s bar in San Anselmo, singer at various restaurants and

events, and male stripper.

He says, "I was a male stripper from the time I was 21 until I was 30.  I did

private parties.  I would do birthdays, bachelorette parties, mostly all-women

parties.  Bachelorette and birthday parties were the main thing.  I would

dress up as a policeman, Prince Charming, a cowboy, or a surgeon, or in a

business suit, and come in and do anywhere from one song to a half hour’s

worth of dancing and entertaining.  I was kind of a comedy stripper.  I would

put on a funny show and have innuendos within the song lyrics that (would)

make a joke.”

Like its current internet descendants such as MySpace and YouTube, Dial-

A-Spazz had its share of critics.  “Some people thought that I should censor

it more,” remembers Power.  “There were parents who didn’t like the fact that

their kids were being exposed to things.  I didn’t censor it a lot.  I allowed

pretty much whatever.  I allowed any kind of language and so forth.  I wanted

it to be a safe space where you could be anything.  You could be yourself.

You could be as spazzy or as crazy as you wanted.  But for everyone who

criticized it, there was someone who loved it.”

Power isn’t sure how many people actually called Dial-A-Spazz over its 18

year lifespan but says, “Thousands of people used it over time.  On any

given day several hundred people used it. It was constantly busy.  There

was always somebody listening to the tape or on the conference 24/7.”

Dial-A-Spazz may have been a pioneering underground for free speech in

Marin, or simply a strange number to call to hear the F-word, but it definitely

made a lasting impression on many.

“At least three couples that I know of got married from Dial‑A‑Spazz,” says

Power.  “I still meet people from time to time who tell me they met their best

friend (on Dial-A-Spazz) who they still have 20 years later.  At Ted’s Bar

people would occasionally say, ‘Hey your voice sounds familiar, are you

Mark Spazz?’  So I occasionally get recognized more by voice than by

appearance because my appearance has changed over the years.  It’s been

a long time. ”

Powers says Marin’s appearance has also changed over the years.  “I’ve

watched a lot of buildings go up in (empty) lots....  In Mill Valley where Red

Cart (market) was and Long’s and Albertson’s, that was all just big piles of

dirt and I used to ride my bike there.  When that TV show “I Want It All Now”

came out about Marin and that “Mill Valley” song from Rita Abrams promoted

Marin, people wanted to come here from all over the world,.  So of course the

property values skyrocketed.  I watched Tam Valley get busier and busier to

the point where it was hard as heck for me to get in and out of Tam Valley on

weekends ‘cause so many people were going to the beach. “

Click HERE to watch Mark “Spazz” on a Cable Access program about Dial-

A-Spazz from the early-1980s.

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All of the material

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Jason Lewis

unless otherwise

stated.  Those

images not owned

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are copyrighted

by their

respective

owners.  If you

are interested in

using material

from these pages,

please contact

Jason Lewis at

jason@marinnost

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